Who Let Him Play Yu-Gi-Oh!-Chapter 48: Returning with a Full Load

After Kaiba finished his business, he quickly went off to do his own thing, while Kira continued to follow Mokuba to the KaibaCorp branch office.

When he came out, his hands were already carrying a big, heavy box full of cards.

Kira thought, that even if there were cards he couldn't use himself, taking them back to sell first wasn't a bad option.

After carefully sorting through his picks, Kira roughly split the final selected cards into three categories.

The first type were cards that, judging by the current meta, were still valuable staples. There weren't any rare ones here, though. The priciest were defense cards like Mirror Force, etc.

The second type were cards that, at first glance, didn't seem useful, but reminded him of certain combos, niche decks, or situational plays. Some of these cards would be dead draws most of the time, but once you mastered the art of heart of the cards, these could solve board states that generic staples couldn't touch.

The third type was pure useless but expensive, just like all those high-priced bricks that his original body owner's deck had when he first arrived.

He'd already sold off his predecessor's expensive but worthless cards as soon as he arrived. The cash he got from selling them, plus the prize from the Moonlight Cup and the dojo's subsidy, all became his seed money—and he'd got a good price, too. Now, he stuck to this logic: if he didn't see anything he needed, he just picked out the expensive ones to box up. He could always sell them for cash and buy what he wanted later.

So overall, this haul was quite fruitful. Among them, a few cards instantly caught his eye as particularly awesome and representative:

Ultimate Offering (Continuous Trap Card)

Effect: Pay 500 Life Points to Normal Summon a monster. This effect can be activated during your Main Phase or your opponent's Battle Phase.

No need to say more—an eternally banned card. In Yu-Gi-Oh, anything that's been banned forever is a badge of honor. If a card's been locked away in the Forbidden Room for years, it's always got some insane effect.

But this card was only officially banned in 2014. Back in the GX era, it was still legal in the real-life game. It's the classic type that seems simple and rough at first glance but gets more and more broken as the meta evolves.

Makyura the Destructor (Level 4, ATK 1600)

Effect: During the turn this card is sent to the Graveyard, its owner can activate Trap Cards from their hand.

Another card that spent forever in the forbidden room, was only released years later after its effect was nerfed. Its strength speaks for itself; the years it spent banned are its best resume.

Lava Golem (Level 8, ATK 3000)

Effect: Cannot be Normal Summoned, but can be Special Summoned to the opponent's field by tributing two monsters they control. The turn you use this effect, you can't Normal Summon. The controller of this card takes 1000 damage each turn.

No explanation needed. Ever since Marik first used it in the old anime as a six-year-old, it's been the godfather of tribute-based decks. It doesn't have the same forbidden-room resume as the previous two, but even now, you still see it pop up in modern Yu-Gi-Oh, used to take down even the god cards.

Especially when your opponent spends three minutes setting up two fully protected boss monsters, then on your turn you just slam down Lava Golem and eat them both—the look on their face can keep a Shadow Realm dweller happy for an entire week.

It's a monster that brings pure joy. (sarcasm)

With a sense of triumph, Kira carried the box out the door, fully satisfied. But just as he was leaving, Mokuba looked at him strangely.

"Is it just me, or do you really like Marik's cards?" Mokuba asked.

Kira thought about it.

He hadn't noticed before, but now that Mokuba mentioned it, it did seem true.

How to put it... Marik was ahead of his time—a true sunshine boy! Not to mention his sister and his servant, Odion. The whole Tombkeeper trio were no slouches.

All those old-school, creepy cards seemed to come from their family. It was just in their blood.

This gave Kira a sudden new idea.

After Mr. Marik's family completed their mission of sending the Pharaoh back to the afterlife at the end of DM, they disappeared and never showed up again. But if they've kept dueling all these years, who knows what the Tombkeeper trio is like after eight years?

If he ever got the chance to meet them, exchange notes on the latest shadow duelist techniques, or even swap some banned ragequitting cards, that would be even better.

Of course, this was just a thought for now. The Tombkeepers had vanished; who knows where they are now?

Also, Kira was very interested in the new type of duel disk that Kaiba showed off today, so he asked Mokuba if he had one.

Unfortunately, it seemed to be a non-commercial item.

It had been classified as a weapons system, so you couldn't just get one.

Kira thought that made sense. If everyone could buy a duel disk that summoned real monsters to attack people, then compared to that, traditional guns would suddenly seem lame.

"But, the latest model duel disk is fine," Mokuba smiled. "It's also unreleased, but there's no weapons system, of course."

So Kira happily walked away with a new duel disk.

Returning with a full load, Kira planned to sort out his haul that night and list the cards he wanted to sell on the Academy trading platform. He'd also review the insights he'd gained in recent days and adjust his deck accordingly.

After all these practice duels, Kira had started to realize something.

He wasn't sure if it was because he was a reincarnated card game nerd with natural talent, or if it was just the spirit bonus he'd gained.

But Kira felt he'd developed a certain destiny power. fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm

He couldn't see or touch it, but he'd noticed it in real duels and repeated practice.

It wasn't as OP as anime protagonists who always topdecked the perfect card for a one-turn kill, and he didn't dare cram unrelated systems into a single deck as they did, but he was at least able to reliably draw what he needed most of the time.

By his own (possibly inaccurate) estimate, he was now about on par with a top-tier player in the Duel Academy arc—a strong ordinary duelist.

That might sound average, but for most players, it was enough to let him make some bolder deckbuilding decisions.

Like, for example, breaking a habit he'd developed over many years—

—expanding his deck beyond forty cards.

...

Night fell, along the city's coast.

A helicopter slowly descended, like a giant steel eagle gently touching down. Its rotors whirred loudly in the night.

A blond man, cigarette in his mouth and sunglasses on his face, casually jumped out of the cabin with his hands in his pockets.

He took out his phone, dialed a number, and exhaled two smoke rings as he waited for the call to connect.

The call was answered quickly.

"It's me," the man said lazily. "Just landed."

"Good. Our people have already scouted the ruins and gathered some intel. You'll have it before tonight."

"Got it."

The blond man took another deep drag on his cigarette.

"Be careful," said the cold voice on the other end. "I just got a report that 'Blood Moon' has already been taken out."

The blond man was surprised: "By who?"

"'Blood Moon,' one of the shadow duelist groups under the organization."

"Oh, so cannon fodder. You don't seriously think those losers are in the same league as me, do you?" The blond man snorted.

"The report says Seto Kaiba personally handled it," the voice said coldly.

The man's smile vanished instantly.

"Kaiba's in the city?"

"Looks like it. That's why I'm telling you to be careful. Don't get caught."

"Tch, if I get caught, so be it—I've wanted to see how I stack up against Kaiba these days." The blond man snorted. "I'm not the same as I was back then."

"Mission first," the voice replied coolly. "Don't die."

"Yeah, yeah, I get it."

The blond man cursed a bit, hung up, and stubbed out his cigarette.

"Seto Kaiba... what a pain."

PS: Read advanced Chapter at patreon.com/AbsoluteCode